Neutral mutations are changes in
DNA sequence that are neither beneficial nor detrimental to the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce. In
population genetics,
mutations in which
natural selection does not affect the spread of the mutation in a species are termed neutral mutations. Neutral mutations that are inheritable and not
linked to any genes under selection will either be lost or will replace all other
alleles of the gene. This loss or
fixation of the gene proceeds based on random sampling known as
genetic drift. A
neutral mutation that is in
linkage disequilibrium with other alleles that are under selection may proceed to loss or fixation via
genetic hitchhiking and/or
background selection.